Story Time - An ArthurxReader Oneshot for midnightestrella
by MisstiqueRose
Summary: A oneshot for midnightestrella with everyone's favourite Iggybrows! Reading hour with the kids from Hetalia Primary, what more do I need to say? Extremely fluffy, in my humble opinion.


**Story Time**

**An England x Reader Oneshot for midnightestrella**

**Hey there, so this is a request from midnightestrella for an England x Reader! This one is a little fluffier than the last one (i.e. there's a lot less angst!) Hope you enjoy!**

**This one will be written entirely in second person unless I mention a perspective change! **

**I don't own Hetalia! **

"Story time, kids!" The waist high stampede trampled through the what-was-supposed-to-be-quiet library, gently meandering to a stop on a lush rainbow carpet in the centre of the Junior Fiction section. As opposed to the rest of the serious looking library, the Junior Fiction section was brightly painted in cheery pastels with smaller shelves and paintings, giving it a far more comfortable feeling. A red tartan rocking chair sat at what one would suppose was the 'head' of the coloured mat, as it was where all the children were eyeing eagerly. One little boy attempted to get close enough to touch it, but was pulled back by his brother in the nick of time lest their teacher catch them. "Everyone sit on the Story Mat!" The army in miniature did as they were told, each finding a spot of coloured fabric for themselves whilst a cushion or beanbag awaited those fast enough to grab one.

Yes, this was your favourite bit of your part time job at the library - Children's Reading Hour every week, where the kids from Hetalia Primary Prep class came along to listen to stories. A soft whimper caught your attention and you felt a light pull on your shirt. "[Name], Kuma gotta go potty." That was Matthew, the small Canadian who tugged on the hem of your shirt anxiously motioning to his stuffed polar bear. Smiling you led him to the little boys' room, knowing full well the real reason for the toilet stop. When he came out again he looked up at you gratefully with big violet eyes, listening to the bear for a moment before looking at you. "Kuma say merci."  
"You're welcome Kuma. Now go sit with the other kids, you wouldn't want to miss the story!" He dashed off excitedly, sitting down by his twin brother Alfred. How could you not love these kids? They were all so sweet, when they weren't fighting with each other over the best cushions or interrupting the story. That was one thing you couldn't stand, because of the other reason this was your favourite time.  
"Good afternoon children!" You got to spend a whole hour listening to Arthur read in his perfectly gorgeous British accent.

"G'afta'noon Mista Artha!" The children chorused back, with a couple of particularly mischievous boys calling out "Mister Eyebrows" or "Iggy" (that was from his little brother Alfred, whom Arthur shot a Medusa level glare at). You couldn't help but giggle at the nicknames, someone had once likened his eyebrows to caterpillars and now you couldn't help but be itching to see them become butterflies ever since.  
"Now where were we last time? Does anyone remember?" A bubbly blonde boy (though his fascination with all things pink would deter a narrow minded individual from thinking as such) named Feliks tugged on his friend's sleeve when he answered the question under his breath.  
"Toris does! C'mon Toris! You just sayed it!" Toris, for his part, remained completely silent, shrinking under all the attention.  
"Feliks, Toris doesn't have to answer if he doesn't want to." You came in to the rescue when it looked as though the little Lithuanian was about to cry. You leaned over gently to Toris and smiled. "Answer when you feel up to it, okay?" He nodded, relief playing all over his features. "Does anyone else remember when Arthur got up to?"

"Ja." A hand rose sharply from the sea of children, revealed to belong to Ludwig. The crew cut blonde German had never been one to mince words, even at such a tender age. "The knight vhas helping the grumpy tomato gremlin get his tomatoes back." In case you're wondering which story this is from, it isn't. Arthur would write each of these stories, basing the characters off – surprise, surprise – the children sitting in front of him, and would use their reactions to help fuel the next part of the story. Arthur himself would cameo in the story as the bumbling wizard who caused quite a few laughs from the kids at all his magic spells gone wrong. Arthur smiled and you swore had you not already been sitting among the children you would have collapsed from the sheer perfection of the thing.  
"That's absolutely correct Ludwig. The knight and the grumpy tomato gremlin were heading off to visit the giant to see if he knew where the tomato thief had gone." The kids all leaned in excitedly. "Let's begin, shall we?"

And so for the next, you weren't even watching the time, you listened to these adventures absolutely enchanted by Arthur's voice. You followed the loud knight in shining armour who helped the grumpy tomato gremlin recover his tomatoes from a sunflower-loving yeti who'd really just wanted some friends, the elf who befriended a giant by use of wood carvings and the unicorn who convinced a shy ghost and his two pixie friends that the world wasn't all that scary by throwing them a pink party. Not to mention a cheery tomato-box-fairy **(AN: I'm so sorry, I couldn't resist)** and his best friend, a dog double his size, had tea with the princess and her friend the mermaid whilst a vampire played the fiddle and danced with a girl made out of chocolate and a liquorice loving puffin; even though the puffin didn't know how to dance a baby dragon taught him. There was even a shy polar bear who saved the day from a maple syrup monster, accidentally created by a little boy with a magic sketchbook and an over-talkative monkey. Arthur was absolutely fantastic. He wove words in a way that many writers struggle to do, and had a passion that even the best struggle to find. In fact you were running out of ways to describe it, all you knew for sure was that you loved it.

"And we're going to have to leave it there for today. I'll see you all next week, alright?" A wavering chorus of farewells and they all stood up. The kids all tapered out of the room, some stopping to say goodbye to you, others racing to head back – it was the end of the day after all. You smiled, gently heading back to one of the shelves to sort out some of the returned books. Arthur smiled at your back, watching your movements. Though he'd been stubbornly refusing to admit it to himself, he found you rather…fascinating. Your love of all things literature (even if you didn't like every book you had to encounter – you worked in a library for Pete's sake, naturally there's going to be something you don't like) had definitely attracted him to you, and let's face it, you were beautiful, but from there it became all the little things. That slight smell of flowers (and he had yet to define which one) that seemed to accompany you everywhere, your sense of humour, your tolerance for all the children (including his little _***expletive* **_of a brother), even all of your quirky habits such as singing whilst stacking the books – which you were doing now.

You didn't even know if what you were humming was a song (if it wasn't, you thought, you should totally be paid big bucks for it to be one) but it was soft, light and definitely made the mundane task of stacking books a little less so. Your hips swayed lightly, careful not to get too involved lest you accidentally hit the trolley and go through that embarrassing trauma of having Arthur fuss over you whilst you had to uncomfortably explain that no, you hadn't been shot in the hip, you'd just bumped it. You thought you must have seemed like an idiot. Arthur thought it was adorable. He grinned at the memory, if only to himself and the Flying Mint Bunny toy that sat by his feet, and picked up his book of fairy-tales. He knew exactly what story he was going to write for next week.

Time flew as you arrived back at the plush carpet once more for Story Time the following week. This time, a young Russian boy named Ivan had almost sat on Matthew, but was spooked off by Tino (the gorgeous, Christmas-loving little Finnish boy) giving him a glare so icy you swore the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. Ivan chose instead to sit next to Toris and two other little Baltic boys, Eduard and Raivis; none of whom looked entirely pleased to see that large Russian. You went and sat next to Ivan, partially so he wouldn't feel lonely, and partially so he wouldn't attempt to kill Alfred…again. "Hello there kids," Arthur began. "Today, I'm going to tell you a story about the wizard."  
"He's not-a going to a-use magic on the a-tomato seeds again, is-a he?" Lovino, the older of the two Italian twin boys asked whilst trying to pretend _he_ didn't get as emotionally invested in these stories as everyone else. Arthur laughed gently, his emerald eyes shimmering.  
"No, no, he learnt his lesson from that. He actually felt rather lonely. Up in his tower, away from the rest of the enchanted forest, it was just him. At first he thought the solitude would be nice,"  
"Mister Arthur, what's 'solly-tude"?" Lilli, a little girl from a small country in Europe (you'd always had difficult spelling it, let alone pronouncing it) asked curiously cocking her short blonde mop of hair to the side.  
"Solitude is where you are on your own," you answered. Arthur smiled at you with the jelly-leg-inducing smile of his.

"That's right [Name], but now that he was alone he couldn't focus on any of his work. Something was missing. No matter what he did, nothing felt the same anymore, and it made him sad." Arthur explained. "Reading one of his ancient spell books one day, he found out what it was he was missing. It was true love."  
"How girly!" Alfred scoffed, not long before receiving a sharp blow to the head from…Kumajirou?  
"SHHHH! He's telling a story!" Matthew's voice was barely audible but had all the force it needed, before dropping right down to a breath of wind as he profusely apologized in French to the bear.

"True love is not girly, Alfred. It is the most powerful magic of all, able to lift any curse and undo any spell. The wizard made a decision. He had to go out and find his true love." Arthur provided warmly. There was a part of you that was starting to wonder where this was heading, but was completely overruled by the rest of your fiction-loving brain. "So he set out, but he soon realised he didn't know what it was he was looking for. He found his way to the elf and the giant. 'Can you help me? I'm looking for love, but I don't know what it is,' exclaimed the wizard.  
'Well, I think I know,' the elf began. 'Love is what's inside the presents you get on Christmas morning.' The giant nodded sagely, before adding,  
'Love goes into a carving for someone special.' The wizard thanked them and moved on, coming to the tomato-box-fairy, the tomato gremlin and the giant dog.  
'I'm looking for love, but I don't know what it is,' he exclaimed.  
'I know what it is,' said the tomato-box-fairy. 'Love is having someone to share your pasta with!'  
'It's the person you give your last tomato to.' added the gremlin.  
'And someone who'll play with you all day and never get tired of you,' the dog barked. The wizard thanked them and moved on. In fact, he came across nearly all the magical creatures, each one of them having a different idea on love.

'Love is not needing maple syrup because love is sweet enough,' said the polar bear.  
'Love is like an explosion, inside your heart.' The baby dragon exclaimed.  
'It's going out into a snowstorm just for a pack of liquorice to share.' The liquorice loving puffin provided.  
'It's making you smile, even when you don't want to smile.' The shy ghost whispered.  
'And stopping you crying when you get sad,' added the smaller pixie, nodding at the ghost.  
'Love is kissing a boo-boo to make it better.' The bigger one exclaimed, pushing his glasses up his nose as though his answer were incredibly scientific.  
'Love is warm and bright like a sunflower,' the yeti grinned.  
'It's in every cuddle and every kiss,' sighed the girl made out of chocolate.  
'It's like an avalanche, where you have to run for your life' the monkey screeched, somewhat fearfully.  
'Love is going to find you, even if you try to hide from it.' The boy with the magic sketchbook replied, looking at the monkey who ran off screaming. He turned to the wizard with a small smile. 'It always finds a way back to you.'  
'Love doesn't care what you look like,' sang the vampire.  
'It forgives you even when you say something silly,' said the mermaid.  
'It's holding you close at night to keep you safe from monsters,' said the princess.  
'Love protects you from all the bad stuff,' the knight smiled at the wizard." The kids all nodded in approval at these answers and you smiled. "The wizard was even more confused now than ever. With all this information he sat down on a rock and began to think."

"Thinking originated in Korea, da-ze!"  
"But wedgies originated in Russia, da?"  
"Ivan, be nice. Yong Soo, don't interrupt."

"Right, so the wizard began to think. And as he was thinking, he saw the Fairy Queen wandering through the forest. She was beautiful, with hair that shone in the sun and eyes that sparkled with life. She hummed a little tune, melodic and perfect to his ears, as she made her way down the path towards him and he couldn't stop staring. He was completely entranced. Was this the love he'd been searching for?" Arthur looked up and met your gaze, and for the first time you saw a light blush dust his cheeks as he continued to read. "She looked over at him, and as their eyes met he felt the fireworks and explosions and magic that everyone had told him about. He knew it. This had to be love." Something inside you registered that the Fairy Queen was a representation of someone, someone Arthur clearly liked a lot, but by now you were so hypnotized by his voice it had little effect. "Gathering all his courage, and with a little push from the tomato-box-fairy, he found himself face to face with the Fairy Queen." Arthur stopped, looking up from the novel hesitantly into your eyes. Slowly he closed the book and made his way towards you, tripping slightly on Feliciano.

"I feel like I've been missing you for a very long time, said the wizard." He held out his hand towards you, a smile on his face. A blush the colour of the ripest tomatoes seized your face. _He wasn't, was he?_ You gently placed your hand in his, rising to your feet.  
"I've been feeling the exact same way, replied the Fairy Queen." He held your hand close as you replied (and you weren't sure if you were drawn into the story or his undeniable charm). Whatever it was in your mind that was in charge of intelligent speech had completely shut down. A smile graced his face and he held out an arm.

"Would you care to go out for tea sometime?" A bright grin crossed your face.  
"I'd be delighted to."

So you walked out of the library, hand in hand, leaving a group of slightly bemused children behind.  
"Wait, so what happened to the wizard?" Alfred called out to his brother quizzically. A confused silence filled the air.  
"He found his-a true love." Feliciano, the younger Italian, stated simply; the ditzy, semi-awake smile never leaving his face. The kids all nodded, with the girls 'aww'ing and the boys scoffing about how girly it was, but secretly just a little bit happy at the happy ending.  
"Time to go, children." The kids all filed out after their teacher, bar one paranoid little Korean boy who was hiding behind the chair.  
"Love won't find me here," he whispered to the Flying Mint Bunny plush he was gripping intensely. Kiku, the Japanese boy, simply sighed and began to pull his stupid baby brother home much to his utter dismay. Baba was definitely going to need to have a talk to this one.

**Oh wow! All done, and pracitcally 3000 words! Hope you all like it, the end was a bit *cough* super *cough* cliché but whatever! **

**By the way "Baba" – Chinese (Mandarin) for 'dad'**

**And "prep" where I come from is a step up from kindergarten (first year of real school) - not dissimilar to what Americans call 'first grade'. **

**I hope I got all the accents right and that you guys liked it, 'specially you midnightestrella!**

**Also, virtual cookies and maybe a oneshot special for you if you can guess (and identify) all the children in the class :D **

**Please Read and Review :D :D :D I will eventually get back on task with my longer fics – I swear!**


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